TERREBONNE and LAFOURCHE Parishes, La.

OBITUARIY for JOLLEY, MARGARET VIRGINIA 
  
Submitted by: Louis Lavedan

Source: LandryÕs Funeral Home, Lafourche Parish, La.

Died: Sunday, May 11, 2014

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JOLLEY, MARGARET VIRGINIA 
(Died May 11, 2014)

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Dr. Margaret Virginia Jolley, who in 1974 became Nicholls State UniversityÕs 
first woman academic dean, died Sunday afternoon, May 11, 2014 at Thibodaux 
Healthcare Center. She was 93.

Visitation for the dean and professor emerita of home economics will be from 
8:30 a.m. until funeral time at 11 at St. Thomas Aquinas on the Nicholls campus 
on Monday, May 19, 2013. 

Burial will be in Morgan City Cemetery.

She was dean of the Nicholls College of Life Sciences and Technology at the 
time of her retirement in 1977. In addition to home economics, the department 
she established in 1961, the college consisted of the departments of 
agriculture, biological sciences, engineering technology, and nursing and 
allied health technology. ÒMargaret was an ideal citizen and a community 
leader,Ó said Dr. Bonnie Bourg, a long-time close friend and Nicholls professor 
and dean of academic affairs emerita. ÒShe was a wonderful friend, a good 
person, a devout Catholic and well-rounded academically and socially.Ó

Early in her career, Dr. Jolley was a high school teacher, an LSU Ag Extension 
nutritionist and a Louisiana Department of Education supervisor. She was 
president of the Louisiana Home Economics Association from 1964 to 1966.

She was born on Sept. 13, 1920, in Morgan City. A graduate of Central Catholic 
High School in Morgan City, she received a B.S. degree cum laude from the 
University of Southwestern Louisiana in 1940, an M.A. from Teacher's College at 
Columbia University in 1950 and a D.Ed. from Oklahoma State University in 1970. 
She also studied briefly at the University of Arkansas and the University of 
Colorado.

She worked for five years for the LSU Cooperative Extension Service, most of 
them as district agent for 17 parishes in southeast Louisiana. For two years 
she was a State Department of Education supervisor of adult home economics 
education. In 1961 she started the Nicholls home economics department, which 
she headed for 14 years until she became an academic dean.

She helped plan the university's cafeteria building, then known as Acadia Hall, 
and established several two- and four-year degrees as well as Nicholls day-care 
and pre-school laboratory programs.

In the early 1940s she taught at Chataignier (Evangeline Parish) and Brusly 
high schools and from 1955 to 1960 at Morgan City High School. Later she was 
active in more than a dozen professional, civic and religious organizations. In 
1974 she chaired a committee of the American Home Economics Association. In the 
mid-1960s she served on the Governor's Commission on the Status of Women and on 
the Morgan City Planning Commission.

She was a member of several honorary organizations, including Delta Kappa 
Gamma, Omicron Nu, Pi Lambda Theta, Kappa Delta Pi and Alpha Lambda Theta. USL 
in 1960 recognized her as Distinguished Alumna in Home Economics. In 1966 she 
served as president of the Bayou Woman's Club of Thibodaux.

In 1958 she was grand regent of Catholic Daughters Court Massabielle 1134. In 
1972-73 she was an officer on the St. Thomas Aquinas Parish Council at 
Nicholls.

In retirement, Dr. Jolley lived in Thibodaux, taught catechists, was a St. 
Thomas Aquinas Eucharistic minister and lector. She assisted in founding the 
Marian Servants of the Word in Thibodaux and for about six years was a member 
of the service committee of the Bayou River Region chapter of Magnificat.

She is survived by numerous nieces and nephews, great nieces and nephews, and 
great-great nieces and nephews. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in 
death by her siblings, Elizabeth Jolley Delahaye, Hannah Jolley Comerford, 
Barbara Jolley Joy and Dr. Homer R. Jolley,

LandryÕs Funeral Home Inc. is in charge of arrangements

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